Do you love cookbooks?

I love cookbooks. And what’s more, I know cookbooks: I’ve been a professional cookbook critic for over ten years, and my reviews have appeared on Eater, Epicurious, Lucky Peach, and Food 52.

Stained Page News is an IACP-award winning newsletter where I share news, recipes, exciting upcoming books, details on new releases, my personal recommendations, and random cookbook-related content that I think is funny. I also feature deeper dives into obscure sub-genres, long-forgotten titles, and interviews with some of the brightest minds in the cookbook world. SPN has been featured in the New York Times and on NPR, and was named one of the 80 best single-operator newsletters on the internet by Inside Hook.

If you want to geek out about cookbooks, you have come to the right place.

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Stained Page News FAQ

How do I place an ad in your newsletter?

I am so glad you asked! If you are interested in advertising in a newsletter with skyhigh open rates, enthusiastic engagement, and a growing niche audience, please get in touch!

I am a book publicist, how do I get you a galley or a review copy?

Email me for my mailing address! If you already have my address—and most of you do—please just send me stuff you’re excited about! You don’t need my permission. If I responded to every single email asking if I wanted to see a review copy of X or Y new title, that would be all I did! Consider this question answered, permanently: yes, I would love to see a review copy.

Why don’t you cover books about health and wellness?

I found that covering calorie counting/weight loss diet books was a big nope for both me and my audience—and I have gotten a lot of feedback from readers that this policy is something they appreciate. Problem is, the lines have gotten really blurry these days. It's hard to tell when a book uses, say, the word "clean" or “wholesome” whether the recipes might really damaging to people recovering from eating disorders or body image issues. Not to mention a lot of health fad books out there make questionable claims that I am not qualified to fact check. So I just steer clear. It's easier for me to draw a hard line, and those books will find their audiences without me.

That said, I will cover books that are about allergies (say, egg-free baking) and vegan/vegetarian/pescatarian/etc diets. I don't cover cookbooks for athletes because I'm not sure that's quite my audience, but I wouldn't be opposed I guess.

Why don’t you cover fandom cookbooks?

Several reasons, actually: first of all, the number of these books has really skyrocketed in recent years. Some of these books are truly great, but some of them are ham-fisted cynical money grabs full of puns and bad recipes. Frankly I don’t have time to wade through the latter to find the former. Also, my guess is that the intended audiences for these titles will find them without my help.

I want to write for Stained Page News! How do I pitch you and what are you looking for?

I am not currently accepting pitches, apologies! I’ll let you know when that changes. Hopefully soon.